Jam-Packed weekend of Fall Fun

What a busy, crowded weekend!! Friday the elementary school PTA hosted Family Fun Night and it was a crazy-crowded night. There was a carnival, dance party (dancing with glow sticks--Aidan was in heaven), raffles, food, the works. The kids were like the mayors of the school, stopping to say "HI" to their peeps every third step. AND, I won one of the raffles so I was feeling cool.

Jake was getting ready to get his card crossed out. After each activity, you got a box crossed out. When you got 6 boxes you got a free bag of popcorn. You'd have thought they were giving away gold with the way the kids were fighting to get the 6 boxes filled.

Aidan is using his Star Wars Force powers to move the ball up the bars.

Saturday night after a great soccer game earlier in the day (Jake was goalie)....we headed to the Boo at the Zoo. Also a crazy-crowded event. It was at the Syracuse zoo with lots of different animal shows for kids, a juggler, bubble blower, and much more. But the best part was that the kids got to wear their costumes and it was relatively warm and the rain held off until just as we were leaving and even then it was just a mist. However, we got there late and had to park soooo far away. But the kids were awesome, I don't even think they complained. (I did.) Poor Corinna did come home with 102 fever though!

A little pre-event face painting.

Aidan was loving life being all painted. Although he INSTANTLY wanted it off when he was done.

Little Miss Kitty ready to go.

meow.

Mr. Mario. There were a least a dozen other Marios at the Zoo Boo.

Jake went as Spider-Monkey, a character from Ben-10.

Our neice Natia (Britney Spears in Spike's old costume--hmmmm) came over and got ready with us.

Look at Aidan laughing SOOO hard. There was a juggler on stage.

Sunday we carved pumpkins. Jake was so into this year. Aidan was too grossed out by the smell and goo of the pumpkin guts to do much, but Jake did a lot. In years past, Spike did the 'hard' work of cutting off the top of the pumpkins and hollowing out the guts and basically carving the whole thing for each of the kids. But I did it this year. COrinna was attached to Spike so I was in charge of pumpkins! Like I said, Jake did most of his, but I carved out Corinna's and Aidan's. I did try to roast some pumpkin seeds and they were disgusting. Let's just say, I'm glad you only have to carve pumpkins once a year.

Jake "I'm so dramatic", LOVED getting all the guts out of the pumpkin. 

Shelby thought we should carve this one....

Little known fact: Pumpkin carving goes much smoother when you wear cat ears.

This is about as close as Aidan was willing to get to 'his' pumpkin.

The finished pumpkin family.



See how they grow!

It's hard to believe in the pictures that they have grown so much. The first year we went here, Aidan was just about 1 and wouldn't stand up against the sign ...but he's getting the hang of it now!

Pumpkin Day at School

Today Jake had a special treat. All the kindergarteners (and in our case, Aidan, too) got to enjoy a brief hayride, cider and donuts, and pumpkin picking--right at the school with strategically placed pumpkins. What a nice afternoon. The kids got such a kick out of it. And the weather so cooperated. It was cloudy all morning, and pretty much as soon as the kids came out, so did the sun!

Pumpkin Picking Tradition

Today was great! It was a really pretty fall day, sunny and 75, it was Yom Kippur so Jake had off from school, Spike took the day off, and it was Aidan's actual birthday. So lots of reasons to get outside and pick pumpkins. Even though spike is fighting a bad cold and was up all night coughing, he loaded up on dayquil and we tried to take it as easy as possible. We went to the same place we've gone for the last 2 years. But, we tried something new, the hayride to the pumpkin patch. That was a bumpy good time. Jake really wanted a pumpkin he could carve and Aidan wanted one that he could decorate with stickers. Spike ended up carving Jake's pumpkin. I had started, but apparently my work was sub-par so Jake requested that Spike finish up. Aidan named his pumpkin Super-Mega-Mom-Happy-Birthday-Blue's-Clues-Pumpkin. We went with my friend Amy and her son, who is best friends with Aidan.

Fall Fun

After the big party yesterday and considering that Jake is still fighting a cold a bit, we took it easy today, but still needed to take advantage of the gorgeous fall day outside. We did a little roller skating (Aidan's new bday gift from Aunt Lainie), fishing pole contest, and tree climb-sitting (where daddy lifts the boys into a branch and they sit there!)